Dry Cleaner Vs. Coin Laundry (pros and cons)

[camachy98]

Dear Group,

Some of us may own both dry cleaners and seperate coin laundry operations. Could you please point out the pros and cons of each? I'd really appreciate it.

Right now I'm in a position to purhcase a dry cleaners for $45,000 or a dilapidated laundrymat for rehab @ $30,000. I'm aiming for the dry cleaners because I believe the overhead is much lower. Any tips or bits of info would definitely be appreciated.

-Angel

[SecretarytoBraveDave]

I can't image the overhead of a dry cleaner to be less than a laundromat but then again I am not as familiar with a dry cleaners operation as I am with a laundromat.

From what I understand with a dry cleaner there may be OSHA laws you might need to consider, I would think more employee issues should be considered over a laundromat and a larger liability concern as well over a mat. But these are just things off the top of my head I am thinking of in a comparison. Not to mention you not having any experience in the dry cleaning business, unless you have this issue covered?

The laundromat world is a self sevice arena and an easier nut to crack into...but then you will have to decide this for your self. IMHO both investments between your options the dry cleaners and the laundromat require very little investments and I would be very skittish about both of these purchases without hearing the details of either of these deals going forward, I cannot imagine getting either business for so little. Could you elaborate a little more?

[camachy98]

Dave,

I'm located in New York City, like most big urban centers there are tons of small stores located one next to the other. For example the dry cleaners I'm talking about is only 800 Sq. Feet. The business there is to sub-contract the actual cleaning. Thus, none of the cleaning is done on premise, it is only a storage facilty. Thus, I charge the customer $3.00 for a shirt, and the item is sent to a industrial dry cleaner a mile or two outside the city, where they charge me $1.50 for the [censored]. Thus, i have a 100% mark up on the shirt. The industrial dry cleaner brings it back cleaned, pressed, and packaged in a plastic cover. I hand it over to the customer, and charge $3.00 for it.

On the other hand, laundromat that is being sold to me is in the bronx in a low income neighborhood. The machines are washers are only 4 years old, and the dryers are 12 years old. Thus, I'd have to replace those. The place definitely needs a face lift, however, it's located in a good location with lots of traffic. A true diamond in the rough. They are both netting about $45,000/year.

However, the overhead is lower in the dry cleaning business, because I don't have any machines to worry about, it's all handled off site.

Hope this helps!

-Angel

[galaga]

I ran a drycleaner and coin laundry together for 10 years,closed the drycleaner,I hate the dryclean biz,you have to deal with EPA,OSHA,emplyees,customers......I love the coin laundry biz.Those are 2 total different biz with different customers,if you want to live in your business,buy a cleaner!

[SecretarytoBraveDave]

Angel,

You may call me Kitty not Dave... I'm of the female persausion and as many here will attest with annoying habits...:)

I was just in NYC and there was many shirt specials of 1.50 or less on windows everyever throughout the city. I would think it would be hard to get 3.00 a shirt in the NYC market?

Just from the little infomation you are providing the laundromat sounds like a better opportunity, but will need to have a more in depth analysis before a judgement is made. But I really think the cleaner deal is bad deal from what you describe, my instincts just from your explanation of the deal would make me very skittish and decline further investigation into such a deal. No risk no reward. When you count on your entire business on efforts of another you could be in very deep pooh pooh in the event something out of your control happened to that other entity. Your better off, with the coin laundry learning that busines your self...

Educate your self in the coin laundry industry you may find it interests you more than you thought it ever could.



Kitty

[galaga]

I charge $1.25 for a shirt in 1990,most drycleaner in my area charge the same,when I exit the dryclean business in 2000,$1.25 was high price in my area since all the new stores were charge $1 $.90 even$.75.
The drycleaner supply also jump 4,5 times,EPA charge $500-1000 a year fee,drycleaner is not a easy biz.

[neal]

For those prices why not buy both stores. If anything came up around here for a low price like that i would look and buy fast

[ThePoetSuede]

I am in the Manhattan/Bronx area, a Lundromat netting $45,000 a year - are you expecting to work there or does this number include a worker? How many machines are we talking about?

Keep in mind you will be getting some new machies and purchasing the place, so that number will be reduced. But again, have you really looked into the numbers, including what's left on the lease.